It Grows the Brand

In an old “Futurama” epsisode, a character known only as Eighties Guy who had been cryogenically frozen (guess when) is reanimated. He takes impressionable delivery boy Fry under his wing and together they try to take over Planet Express, the intergalactic package-delivery firm Fry works for.

In no time, Fry is wearing ‘80s-style suspenders and talking business nonsense. When the pair create a ridiculously over-the-top TV commercial for Planet Express, Fry smugly defends it on the basis that “It grows the brand.”

The line is meant to make Fry look like an idiot, and it succeeds. But, setting aside the question of whether it’s silly to use these business clichés, we can ask: Is that even correct? Can you use “grow” that way?

Let’s find out.

In case you don’t recall, most verbs can be classified as transitive or intransitive. Transitive verbs take objects. Lou watched TV. Betty knits sweaters. The workers built a house. Objects “receive the action” of the verb. In other words, they’re the things the verb is acting upon.

Intransitive verbs are actions without objects. Karen slept. Bert walks. We spoke.

But, of course, many verbs are both. Lou watched. Betty knits. Bert walks the dog. We spoke the truth.

We all know “grow” as an intransitive verb. Flowers grow. Children grow. Love grows. The question is, can it function transitively? Can it act directly upon something? And to get an answer, we need look no further than the dictionary.

Merriam-Webster lists “grow” first as an intransitive verb. But right under that listing, it says this:

transitive verb

1. a: to cause to grow: ‘grow wheat.’ b: to let grow on the body: ‘grew a beard’

2. to promote the development of: ‘start a business and grow it successfully’

So yes, you can say “grow the brand.” But that doesn’t mean you should.

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This entry was posted on Monday, February 18th, 2013 at 5:09 pm and is filed under Blog. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.